21G Artist's Portfolios

Richard Allman

I trained at Central School of Art in London from 1968-1971, acquiring a Dip Ad in Fine Art and at Exeter University 1985/6 for an M Ed.(The Arts in Education). At art school I worked on huge 7 foot square abstract colour field paintings, but since then I have looked around me more to find images. I have been particularly interested in urban regeneration projects – buildings being built and demolished and the whole process of urban change. Similarly, I am fascinated by wooden boat construction and their eventual decay as rotting hulks stranded on a beach. But now all sorts of things grab my attention, from road markings, reflections, and bicycles to allotments, log piles and Columbian printing presses.

I am fascinated by wooden boat construction and their eventual decay as rotting hulks stranded on a beach. But now all sorts of things grab my attention, from road markings, reflections, and bicycles to allotments, log piles and Columbian printing presses. Teaching keeps me on my toes, encouraging interaction between image, medium, process and concepts such as line, tone, texture, pattern and scale.

I have recently been diverted into stage plays – a large series of drawings of ‘War Horse’ during rehearsals, a new challenge as actors and horses were continually on the move. My first animated film, Tamarama, is all about a river boat trip up the Tamar with over 150 drawings and thousands of camera frames (https://Vimeo .com/113900534). The drawings tend to be on a large scale with free-flowing ink that has a mind of its own. Control of the ink is a big issue – I prefer to think of it as a negotiation between this liquid and the image I have in mind.